The most popular landscape strategy to mitigate the negative effects of
habitat loss and fragmentation is to restore connectivity through the
creation of corridors. Our group is dedicated to testing the
ecological consequences of corridors. Since 1993, we have worked
with the US
Forest
Service at the Savannah River Site (SRS), the Corridor Research Group,
and others to create large
landscape experiments and test for effects of corridors on plant and
animal dispersal, population persistence, and
biodiversity. Our current research objectives are to test
corridor effects on plant populations and communities, focusing on
species of restoration interest in longleaf pine savannah
ecosystems. In
particular, our research will separate corridor effects created
through increasing connectivity and edge habitat.

Our work on corridors to date has shown that:

Corridors increase
dispersal of plants and animals. Detailed dispersal studies have
shown that corridors increase dispersal for 13 of 15 species we've
studied.

Corridor effects on
dispersal can be predicted from knowledge of smaller-scale movement
behavior of animals, especially near habitat edges.

Corridors increase
plant diversity.

Among the drawbacks of corridors in a conservation context is that they
create habitat edges, which can have negative effects on plants and
animals living within habitat fragments and corridors. Our lab is
working to separate the effects of edges from the effects of
corridors. Our most recent corridor experiment has explicit
controls on the edge effects created by corridors. Our planned
work will determine the relative importance of edges and connectivity
in population and community dynamics of species of restoration interest.

Our work on corridors and edges has shown that:

Edges can cause birds to nest in places
where their nests are more likely to fail, creating ecological traps.

Edges can create unsuitable habitat for
butterflies, causing butterflies to move through but not remain within
corridors.